This reading series will be guided by the following central question: What wisdom might Jewish traditions offer for our current environmental crises? Philosophy, as the love of wisdom, should be open to wisdom wherever it embeds itself. The Tanakh, the textual source of Judaism, arose from within a largely agrarian society with deep connections to particular lands and places. It seems reasonable, then, to start with the assumption that the traditions of thought and practice that have grown out of the Hebrew Bible (and inspired it) might offer environmental wisdom for our pressing times.

Together, over 4 every-other-Wednesday sessions, we will closely read and discuss the contemporary import of essays from a variety of Jewish authors including Abraham Joshua Heschel, Leo Strauss, Daniel Delgado, James Hatley, and others. Sessions will be discussion-based, facilitated by Kaleb Cohen and Mitchell Conway, with one or two guest facilitators joining along the way.

9/18 — Translation and Sh’mitah: Jewish Philosophy, Rest, and the Land

• Readings:  Leo Strauss, “On the Interpretation of Genesis,” Abraham Joshua Heschel, “Architecture of Time,” and Nigel Savage, “Resetting the Planet through Sh’mitah”
• Core questions:  How might Hebraic ideas inform philosophy? Are they philosophical or solely religious ideas? Can those ideas have any meaning outside of their cultural context? What is the meaning of rest in an age of industrialization and unrelenting resource extraction?